Although invisible to us, every teaspoon of seawater contains more than a million marine bacteria.
Although invisible to us, every teaspoon of seawater contains more than a million marine bacteria. These tiny microbes play pivotal roles in governing the chemical cycles that control our climate and shape the health of the global ocean, but are they passive drifters or purposeful hunters?
New research demonstrates that bacteria in the ocean use similar behaviours to many foraging animals, swimming through their environment while hunting and selecting their preferred “food” among a soup of chemicals in seawater.
An international study led by researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in collaboration with ETH Zurich and the University of Queensland, used purpose-designed microchips to gain a “bacteria’s-eye view’’ of the ocean and show that microbes in the natural environment use sophisticated behaviours to detect and move towards foods they like.
Read more at University of Technology Sydney
Image: A depiction of bacteria foraging between nutrient patches in the ocean. (Image by Justin Seymour, Jean-Baptiste Raina and Glynn Gorick)
